Revolut is no longer hinting. It does not want to be a big lender. That is the clearest thing Nik Storonsky said in Paris. Les Echos asked the awkward bank question: will Revolut finance the economy, including in a crunch? His answer was direct. “Today, the majority of our revenue comes from transaction fees, not loan margins. This makes us a virtually risk-free institution, and we intend to maintain this strategic focus. We also want our model to be as easy as possible to explain to regulators.” He did not say Revolut will never lend. He said lending is not the model. “If our clients want credit cards and loans, we must offer them. But credit will remain a minority part of our business.” And if the book grows: “We will securitise these loans to maintain the leanest possible structure and a very low level of credit risk.” That is similar to what Antoine Le Nel said about lending as about 5% of the mix. Nik has now made it official. Credit is a product line, not the engine. The engine is still fees. The balance sheet stays thin. The story to supervisors stays simple. That is how Revolut wants to look like a bank without becoming one. Mortgages already exist in Lithuania. The French licence is meant to unlock cards, loans and, later, home loans. None of that changes the weighting. “That may happen one day”, about turning into HSBC or Barclays, “but it’s not a priority. For now, we’re focusing on simple, standardised products.” The interesting tension is outside Europe. Nubank, Plata, SoFi and Chime live in markets where credit is the product. Cards, points, instalments, the whole loop. Nik knows that very well about the US. “It’s a credit-driven market, using credit cards, points, and discounts. This model is financed by high interchange fees.” They have pre-approval on a US banking licence. “Once we have the licence, we can launch our credit card with numerous benefits. I’m convinced it will be a success.” The existing US business, he said, is already profitable with no marketing spend. Becoming a bank is how they accelerate it. So the open question is not whether Revolut will offer credit. It is whether it can stay credit-light and still be relevant, especially in the US and Latin America. A rewards card funded by interchange is not the same as building a Nubank-style credit engine. Securitisation is the workaround: originate, sell the risk, keep a fee, keep the balance sheet light. Nik’s answer to the “you will starve the real economy of loans” is “What we’re doing is introducing competition and driving prices down. It’s not about reducing the banks’ profit pool to the point where they can no longer lend.” It's clear that the original meaning of Nik's saying, “We want to replace banks, simple as that”, has changed. Revolut sees itself as a payments and deposits machine that will sell credit where the market demands it, then try not to own the risk. Whether that is enough against firms that are the credit market, he has yet to prove. Nik made from page of Les Echos